The Case Files of Jimmy Kudo
by animebookworm44
Summary: Series of little mysteries dating his first to his last... JimmyxRachel and a few others along the way! Rating may go up in future chapters
1. Case One

Wow. 14 stories already. Most of them chapter stories!

I'm so proud!

And this story could last a while, seeing as I'm making it a series of oneshot fics. I could go on forever! Seriously!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Case Closed/ Detective Conan!

Well, I guess I'd better start!

* * *

**The Case Files of Jimmy Kudo

* * *

**

**Case 1: The Very First Case  
**Subject: Code  
Status: Solved

* * *

"Jimmy Kudo!" a very aggitated Rachel Moore yelled at him. "Would you keep your nose out of that book for _one second!_"

"Shh!" came urges from all around her.

The two were in Seventh Grade, not much different than they are now, except that young Jimmy Kudo still had his body and it was properly aged. Jimmy Kudo was still the mystery lover of the grade, without the world-renowned title, and Rachel had just graduated to a black belt karate champion.

As of right then, Jimmy's nose was stuck so deeply into a Sherlock Holmes novel that Rachel almost wondered if would get his nose stuck in the binding.

It was late afternoon, on June the fourteenth, and the rain had stopped. Both were at the library, picking out from a chosen selection of books a novel that they'd like to do for a book report.

But, as was his way, Jimmy became very distracted when passing through the mystery section to the teen section of the library.

Rachel, noticing his disappearance as soon as Serena was submerged enough in a romance novel, came back to the mystery section, knowing exactly where he'd be.

"Jimmy Booker Kudo!" she hissed, aware of the volume of her voice now. "We're supposed to be picking from a _select_ list of books! Not picking something out of our own accord!"

Jimmy sighed and, without looking at her, closed the book, tucked it under his arm, and walked past her toward the Teens section.

Rachel felt as if she could strangle him. (Not that she couldn't what with her karate training, but rather, she knew she wouldn't, despite the feeling.)

Upon arrival at the section, Jimmy looked scornfully at Serena, who'd gone mushy over some stupid romance novel. Didn't she realize mystery was way better than romance? The very thought of those lovey-dovey books made him shiver.

He glanced sideways as Rachel stood next to him, eyeing the bookshelf.

"Y'know what I hate?" she asked, rather randomly.

"Your dad?" Jimmy teased.

"Jimmy!" she hissed, but smiled nonetheless. "No, I meant that they won't let you choose your own book for this assignment. It's much more fun when you read about something you're interested in,"

"I quite agree, Ms. Moore," came an imposing voice from behind them that made them both cringe.

"Hello, Mrs. Pomegranite," Jimmy and Rachel chimed together. The school librarian just had that aura around her that screamed "OLD! OLD!" None of the students liked her very much. The huge clock behind her that was the library's famous feature only heightened the effect.

"Ah, Mr. Kudo. I see you have another of your silly little detective novels with you. Kids today! Thinking they're more mature than they actually are!" she swiped the book from his arms and held it dangling in the air. Jimmy jumped for it, but Pomegranite pulled it higher at Jimmy's every jump. "What do you want it for anyway?" she asked crudely.

Jimmy stopped jumping. Rachel rolled her eyes. He never missed a chance to talk about mysteries. "Well, I find it all fascinating, the way Holmes can tell where you've been just by the mud on your shoes or the sauce in your mustache. My father has turned me on to mysteries and, as you well know, he's an accomplished writer. Plus, I found something interesting on the fifteenth page. If you'll see, there are letters on the bottom, but they don't make sense. I'd like to try and decode them myself-"

"Please, Mr. Kudo," Pomegranite interrupted. "I don't need a lecture," she sighed and turned around.

Just then, she was bowled over by a man in black, who took the book and tucked it under his arm.

Shrieks and shouts echoed through the library's high walls and many halls.

* * *

"So you and this young miss over here were the two who were talking to Mrs..."

"Pomegranite,"

"Pomegranite? What a funny name. Anyway, you were talking to her when she was er- knocked down?"

Inspector Maguire of the Tokyo police force, Homicide division, was talking to Jimmy inside the library. Although the librarian had only been slightly injured, Maguire and his men were the only ones in the department who weren't on call, and therefore, they were the ones who got stuck with the case.

The rest of the schoolchildren in the teens section were being talked to by other policemen. But Rachel and Jimmy, since they'd been the last to talk with Mrs. Pomegranite, got to talk with the large Inspector.

"Yes, sir,"

"And what were you talking about?"

"Mystery books. As a matter of fact, she'd just confiscated one from me, even though that's against the code of the library,"

"It's true Inspector," Rachel butted in. "I believe the book was called 'The Sign of the Four',"

"You were going to read that?" Maguire turned to Kudo, amazed. "Nevermind," he said, turning back to his duties. "And then some man just came in and knocked Mrs. Pomegranite over?"

"Yes, sir,"

"With no provocation?"

"No, sir,"

"If you don't mind my asking," Jimmy intervened. "How does this fall under police jurisdiction? No one was really harmed, and nothing but a library book was taken. Granted, that book did have some writing on the fifteenth page-"

"Fifteenth page?" Maguire asked, as if something sparked within him. He nodded to one of his men, who returned with an evidence bag, and held it out to the Inspector.

"This is a book we foundd just outside the library. Recognize it?"

"That's the Sign of the Four!" Jimmy and Rachel shouted together.

"Funny, it's missing a fifteenth page,"

"Then that code really was important!" Jimmy said. "Hah, Rachel! I win!"

"Fine, you win," she acknowledged.

"Alright, but how does that help us?" Maguire asked, scratching his head.

A pause.

"Sir?" Jimmy asked hesitantly.

"What?" Maguire snapped back.

"If I could have a piece of paper and a pencil please. And if you'd let me take a look at that book-"

Jimmy recieved his items, and kneeled on the floor.

Rachel smiled, wondering what amazing thing Jimmy would do next.

"What's he doing?" Meguire whispered to Rachel.

"Something Detective-y," Rachel replied.

Jimmy opened the book to page seventeen, and then began his narration. "When anything i written on a page that is on top of another object, such as a placemat or even more paper, it leaves an imprint of what was written. See?" he shaded the pencil over his piece of paper, where letters appeared from the fifteenth page that had been imprinted on the sixteenth page. "I trust you knew that Inspector,"

"Of course!"

And as much as Rachel didn't like mysteries, she couldn't help but smile widely in awe and proudness at Jimmy's trick.

Jimmy smiled too, then his smile disappeared.

_UFCL QSLQFGLC EJYPCQ YR DGTC M'AJMAI  
__DGLB WMSP RPCYQSPC  
__06/25_

_TWO_

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Rachel asked over Jimmy's shoulder.

"My guess is that, since "Two" is the only word we can make out, "two" is supposed to help us figure out the rest of the clue,"

"And how will it do that Jimmy?" she asked.

"Well, it could be a number of ways. For instance, suppose you were to turn these all into numbers, and then match them up with other letters in the alphabet. I highly doubt that one though. Then there's the simpler system of trading the letters two spaces to the right, so that A is C and so on. But then you can also go to the left, making A Y," he paused. "Then there's the subject of that date. If it's right, the thing would take place two months from now. But if you apply the theory of "two" the thing would take place... today,"

"You seem to know your stuff, Kudo," Maguire acknowledged. "Alright, Mr. Detective, I'll get my men on it. So now, where did the thief with the page go?" Maguire asked, deciding to let Jimmy play detective for a little while.

"If you show me exactly where you found this book, I'll tell you,"

* * *

In a few minutes, Jimmy, Rachel, the Inspector and some policemen were outside. The book had been placed back in it's position, and Jimmy was looking at it with a fierce glare, his mind working it out.

The book was facing right at a forty-five degree angle. Maguire had send some men after the direction the book was pointing. Jimmy shook his head.

He stood quickly to the surprise of everyone, except Rachel, who waited to hear what her detective would say next.

"Judging from the way the book is positioned, I'd say the theif went- that way!" he pointed in the totally opposite direction than where Maguire had sent his policemen.

"What!" the Inspector shouted. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Rachel, if you'd help me out," he said, taking a book of the same size and shape that he'd brought out with him, off a wall. "If you would take this book and tuck it under your arm, just like that, and run down the last few stairs, going in the opposide direction of the way the book is faced. But, when you turn the corner, let go of the book lightly, almost as if you dropped it without meaning to. Okay?"

"Sir!" Rachel mock-saluted.

Jimmy rolled his eyes.

She trapsed up to the first landing of the staircase, and got ready to run.

"Okay, Rachel!" Jimmy shouted when he'd gotten out of the way.

Rachel began to run, she was careful of herself on the stairs. They were slippery and wet due to the rain. Then she ran at break-neck speed out of the library gates and to the left, "accidentally" dropping the book when she made the sharp turn.

She stopped herself to look as all the policemen gasped.

The book slid along the wet sidewalk to Jimmy's feet. He happened to be standing just outside of where the book stopped.

He smiled at them all.

"Jimmy Kudo! You're a genius!" Rachel couldn't help but say.

"Squad two!" Maguire shouted into his walkie-talkie at the quadron he'd sent to chase after the theif, "We have a new lead! Repeat: we have a new lead! Get back to the library and start looking in the opposite direction!"

The policemen continued to stare at Jimmy.

"Sir?" another policeman came out from the library.

"What?" Maguire growled.

"Well sir, we did like you told us and tried what the kid said. He was right, sir. But the decoded message is kind of a riddle,"

"Let me see!" Jimmy shouted, snatching the paper away from the policemen.

_WHEN SUNSHINE GLARES AT FIVE O'CLOCK  
__FIND YOUR TREASURE  
__04/23_

"Find your treasure?" Jimmy repeated. "There's a treasure at the library?"

"That's what it looks like, Jimmy," Rachel said over his shoulder. "More imporantly, it looks like what will happen, will happen today,"

"Which explains why the man couldn't let me take the book out of the library," Jimmy thought, his hand on his chin as the policemen watched. "Sir?" he asked one of them, "Do you know what time it is?"

"Why it's 4:30, young man," he responded.

"Then we don't have much time," Jimmy turned back to the paper. "When sunshine glares at five o'clock..."

"Maybe it has something to do with the clock, Jimmy," Rachel suggested.

Jimmy snapped his fingers. "Jeez, Rach. You're more genius than I am,"

"Oh, come on!" Rachel said, rolling her eyes again. She hooked Jimmy's arm in hers and made her way up the steps toward the large clock in the library.

* * *

"Rachel!" Serena shouted, waving at her.

"Hi, Serena," Rachel responded, still dragging Jimmy toward the clock. "Okay, Jimmy. Do your stuff!" she said, dropping the boy on the floor.

He looked up at the monumental clock. The policemen with the teens turned to watch the young boy they heard was solving this case.

"Hmmm... What's behind the clock?" Jimmy wondered aloud.

"My guess would be wall, Jimmy," Rachel said to him.

"I know that would be your guess. But what if there's a safe or something behind it? Something that can only be opened at five o'clock, almost like 4:58, 4:59, 5:00 is the combination,"

"I suppose it's possible," Rachel said, "Depends what's on the other side of the wall-"

"Or how thick the wall is. Then there's the size of the treasure. Because it doesn't say the treasure's nature, we don't know how large of a space it would take to hold it. And therefore, we can't guess if the thickness of that particular wall would be thick enough to hold the treasure,"

"So many "What if" s,"

"The best we can do is ask someone who knows the library's architecture about the clock, what's behind it, and the wall it's mounted on. Not to mention, how to get up there. After all, it would draw attention to the treasure-seeker if he brought in a ladder an just started to climb it and pull at the clock. There has to be an alternate route,"

"What about over there?" Rachel asked, pointing to a darkened portion of an elevated floor of the library. It's wrought-iron rail gave an imposing look to it.

"That's a restricted section, Rachel,"

"But, we could see if there's a passage to the clock. See how the walls next to it jut out, like it's in it's own little alcove? There could be a passage up there that could lead us to the clock. The library closes at five today, so maybe they think it wouldn't draw attention,"

"Why does the library close at five?"

"April 23rd. Shakespeare's birthday and deathday," Rachel responded.

"Oh. Slightly too perfect timing," Jimmy said. "Let's check it out, unless we can't be up there. It is a restricted section, Rach,"

"Jimmy, if we've got the police, we can go anywhere," Rachel reminded him. And it was true. Police workers had the right to investigate any place, provided they had a warrant. But at the time, nothing seemed like it could stop them.

"Inspector?" Jimmy called to the man, who was watching intently. "Do you think it would be possible to have some men check and see if there's a possible way to get from the restrictes upper floor of the library over to that clock?"

"Sure, sure, kid," the Inspector said. This guy really was good! He'd have to enlist the kid one day.

He gave a signal and a squadrant was seen up in the restricted section a minute later.

"Time?" Jimmy called to no one imparticular.

"Jimmy," Rachel said. "There's a huge clock right in front of you,"

"Hehehehe... oops!" Jimmy sweatdropped.

The clock said 4:50.

"Fifteen minutes," Rachel said aloud.

"Sir! There's nothing up here!" a woman called.

"What?" came surprised voices from Jimmy, Rachel, and the Inspector. As it was, they seemed to be doubting themselves.

"We can't seem to find anything, sir,"

"Either there is a door up there we're looking for, or something's in the way of the door we're looking for," Jimmy said. "Or we could be completely wrong in the first place and not even be looking in the right spot,"

"Your assumptions so far have been corrrect, Jimmy. Why shouldn't they be now?"

"Because I haven't had the chance to really think this through thoroughly. But we don't have time for that. So either that is it, or it isn't,"

A pause, in which one question went through all of their heads.

"If this _isn't_ it,... what is?"

"Five of!" Serena reminded.

A sudden bright light came up in the hall, illuminating the restricted section as if it had lights.

"Is that the... sun?" Rachel asked.

The spot of light came closer, illuminating more and more of the library hall as it passed. For minutes everyone stood in absolute silence, just watching the light consume the hallway.

"Two of!" someone shouted.

"Look!" Maguire ordered his men at the door in the restricted section.

But Jimmy's mind was at work. The note said something about sunlight's glare. What would that have anything to do with what they were working on?

The sunlight had almost reached the clock now.

As it came closer the brilliant light reflected off the glass cover of the clock, sending the light straight at Rachel and Jimmy.

Rachel shielded her eyes. But Jimmy couldn't look away.

The second hand was almost at the twelve now.

The clock had been engulfed by the sun.

"That's it!" Jimmy shouted just as the second hane reached its destination. "When sulnight glares at five o'clock! We're not looking at the clock! We're looking at its glare!"

He turned and sprinted toward the spot on the floor where the glare on the clock seemed to point.

It was an area rug, small and round. Jimmy flipped it over and was blinded momentarily by a glare reflected from the sun, off the clock, and again off a little metal latch in the hardwood floor.

He took the latch in his hands and began to pull. Rachel joined him. The room went silent as the wooden door lifted and the secret hiding place beneath was opened.

The sun danced beautifully across the jewels and coins buried beneath the library floor. The reflection illuminated the surprised faces of Jimmy and Rachel, who knelt next to the crevice in awe.

"Thank you, kid," came a voice from behind them.

A click.

Jimmy knew that whoever it was had a gun.

Rachel and Jimmy turned slowly as they faced the man in black clothes who had come for the treasure.

"And I thought I'd have to do this all by myself," he said. "But your childish brain seemed to figure it our before me," his eyes narrowed. "Those are my jewels, kid. And you'd be wise to step away from them before you or your lovely lady friend get hurt,"

"Police!" Maguire shouted, his men poitning guns at the man.

"You really don't want to do that," he said, motioning toward the schoolchildren who'd been detained for questioning. It seems he brought some friends along, as they were all pointing guns at the innocent bystanders.

Maguire and his men were still up in the restricted section of the library, there was no way to get a clean shot, and no way to get down there in time. "Hold fire," Maguire sighed dejectedly.

"Smart man," the thief nodded toward Maguire. "Now are you a smart boy?" he asked Jimmy.

"Jimmy!" Serena called, throwing something at him.

"What the-" the thief started, but it was too late.

Serena had thrown Jimmy a globe, which Jimmy delghted in kicking right into the thief's gun hand. The gun went off, grazing Jimmy slightly on the shoulder. "Rachel, now!" Jimmy shouted.

Rachel took no time in hitting the man with her hardest kick right in the groin. And it was a hard kick. It knocked him out.

"Boss!" All of his men shouted. And, being the stupid lackeys they were, dropped their guns to go help their leader.

"Freeze!" came the call from the police, who'd taken the time during the commotion to leave the restricted section and come back down to the main floor. They pointed guns at the thief's goons.

"Jimmy! You're bleeding!"

* * *

Jimmy was released from the hospital a few days after the incident. He recieved very many thanks from the police force, and the newspapers delighted in telling the story of the middle-school boy who'd helped the police solve a case.

His appearance in school the day after was an exciting one, with all of his classmates joining up to get the full story from him instead of from the newspapers.

Rachel and Serena didn't mind telling their part in the story too

From then on, Jimmy would never have the same reputation.

And there would be many more mysteries to solve.

* * *

**End 1**

* * *

HA! I hope you like it. I'll even take requests for stories to do!

Most will be oneshots, although I think there may be some two-parters in the future.

PLEASE REVIEW!

AND, IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS, EMAIL ME AND TELL ME! I CAM MAKE A STORY FOR YOU! JUST INCLUDE YOUR PENNAME, OR NAME YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE CALLED BY FOR THE STORY DEDICATION.

And if you do, please email me, not tell me in the reviews! Then it sppoils the fun for everyone else who reads the reviews before the actual story.

animebookworm44


	2. Case Two

How 'bout another one?

Maybe this'll be better, since I only got ONE REVIEW BEFORE I POSTED THIS!

JUST ONE!

Thank you very much, tamashiipurizuma!

I hope more people like this one!

**Disclaimer:** Standard

Onto the ficlet!

* * *

**Case 2: The Case of the Missing Rachel  
**Subject: Missing Persons  
Status: Solved

* * *

"Leave me alone!" Rachel shouted, slamming the door to her room.

"Rach, I-"

"I don't want to hear it, Jimmy Kudo! GO AWAY before I HURT you!"

Jimmy had hoped she'd take it better than this. It wasn't his fault! It was his parents! How could she fault him for something his parents decided on their own! They didn't even ask him about it. Had he had a say, he'd have voted against their judgment.

Turning fourteen meant nothing in the eyes of his parents.

Even though, technically, in a court of law, once you are fourteen, the judge can hear your say as actual testimony-

Aw, who was he kidding?

"Rachel!" he persisted.

"Who are you?" came a very sluggish statement from behind him. Jimmy turned to see a very drunk Richard Moore. "Get outta here you little runt! Go on!" he brandished a beer bottle at the boy, who fled from the disheveled apartment as fast as his legs would carry him.

When Richard was drunk, he could be very scary.

Once outside the apartment, he slowed his pace.

He'd been dreading telling her. Especially after her parents announced just yesterday about the separation. Rachel had been heartbroken in school that day.

But of course, the trouble wasn't over.

Jimmy had also put off for a week telling her that he was moving to America. Today was the last day he could possibly tell her everything he wanted to say, and she wasn't going to listen.

Their plane left tomorrow.

On his way home, Jimmy thought of other ways he could possibly tell her how he felt. '_A letter? No, there's no guarantee that she'd read it... A gift? Sure it may cheer her up a little, but still no guarantee... What's something she sees every day?... Her karate bag! But how exactly would that help me convey a message. Have someone sew lettering onto the bag?... This is hopeless!_'

He silently entered the house, which seemed quite empty. Boxes were everywhere in the front hall. Most of the books in the library had been packed. This left his dresser, the only thing he hadn't packed in hopes that he may be able to stay here.

"Jimmy?" his mother asked, knocking on his door. She leaned up against the doorframe. "How'd she take it?"

He hadn't told his parents that he'd put off telling Rachel. But he figured that Vivian Kudo would find out anyway.

"How do you think?" he asked.

"Don't be smart with me, young man! I told you to tell her early, that way you could get the most out of your last few days here. Not that you haven't, taking her to a carnival, taking her to the movies, taking her to Tropical Land-"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Jimmy said.

"Did she really take it that badly?" Vivian asked her son.

"Worse than you know. Had I known her parents would tell her they were separating yesterday, I may have said it earlier, instead of dumping two things on her at once,"

"It's always easier to say it earlier! You can coin that phrase!" Vivian laughed. "I'm sorry, honey. But it's not like we could just leave you here!"

"And why not!" Jimmy argued.

"Do you think you're really ready to take care of yourself?" Vivian countered. "Maybe if you'd show me some adult intuition once in a while-"

The telephone rang.

"That's your father. He's coming home from the publisher's earlier today, so we can finish packing those books in the downstairs hall," she got up to answer the phone, leaving Jimmy to stand there in his thoughts.

* * *

That night (or rather early the next morning), Jimmy sat on his cot thinking still. It was about two in the morning. Weather forecast predicted showers ahead. It would be a sorry day to leave this home, but it had to be done.

The telephone rang.

Jimmy quickly pretended to be asleep, as the phone was right outside his bedroom.

'_Strange,_' Jimmy thought. '_No one rings us up at one in the morning,_'

His mother came out to the hall, peeked in on the "sleeping" Jimmy, and then went to answer it.

"Hello?... Yes, hi, Eva..."

'_Rachel's mother?_'

"...No, no she's not here... Missing! Oh dear heavens!... No, I don't think Jimmy knows where she is... Well she was frightfully disturbed earlier after Jimmy told her we were moving... To America... We'll look... Good luck, Eva!" she hung up the telephone. "Jimmy! Rachel's missing-"

But to her surprise, there was no one in the room, and the window was open with the curtains flapping in the wind.

She smiled slightly, leaving it to her son to find his missing friend.

She knew he would.

* * *

"Rachel!" Jimmy called.

He was out in the woods that surrounded their school. He had a feeling she'd be there. A while back they discovered a little cave that's underwater when the tide comes up, out by the lake. They called it the secret hiding cave.

They had plenty of 'secret hiding...' places. The secret hiding tree house, the secret hiding passage.

Only problem was, those were too near civilization to give credit to Rachel's hiding abilities. He had no doubt that her parents had checked everywhere in that apartment. And she knew he wasn't in his house. So this had to be the only spot.

"Rachel!" he called again.

The rain started downward as he reached the lake. "Dang," he said to himself, and shielded his eyes from the wet water. He felt over rocks for the large cave. The tide was out now.

He coughed as he made his way into the large empty cavern.

He spotted her at the far end of the cave. She cradled her knees to her chest, feeling for some kind of warmth.

"Rachel..." he whispered, as if the wind had said it.

He walked over to her shivering form. It was cold tonight.

"Go away," she said to whomever had decided to intrude.

"Rach, I can't,"

"Jimmy?" she asked hopefully. Her heart fluttered to think he would come to look for her.

"Who'd you think it was, your drunken father?" he joked. She didn't laugh.

He continued down the cave and slid down the wall next to her.

"Why'd you run?" he asked, on a more serious note.

She stayed silent for a long time. Jimmy awaited her answer.

"Why do you think?" she replied after that long period of silence.

Then she completely broke down.

She started to sob and clung to Jimmy's jacket. "Jimmy! I can't do this! I thought I could, but I can't!"

"My life is ending, Jimmy! My parents are separating! My mother's leaving to start a law firm in some other part of the country! She wants to take me with her. But I can't go! My father needs me!"

"And you! You horrible person! Leaving me out to dry through this! I can't make it alone, Jimmy! I just can't! I need you! Here! With me! You can't leave! I won't let you! You're the only person I know I can trust and you're leaving! Half-way around the world!"

"It's just not fair! Does God hate me or something!"

"Rachel!" Jimmy hushed. "God doesn't hate you. If he did, you wouldn't be able to do all the wonderful things that you do! Do you really think you mean that little to people, Rach?"

"What can I do?" Rachel asked sarcastically.

"Please! You can do karate! You've kicked my butt more than once! You're smart, sensitive, pretty," Rachel's head snapped up, "- uh- likeable! Pretty likeable! Uh, nice, funny, and a great cook! You'd have to be with your parents!"

At that comment, Rachel's head went down again.

"I'm sorry about that, Rach!" he quickly made up, once he'd realized what he'd said.

"It's okay, I've come to terms with my parents' cooking abilities," she joked back. Jimmy smiled.

"See! There's the Rachel I know!" he said. Rachel smiled back.

Pause.

"They're looking for you, y'know," Jimmy broke the silence.

"I thought they might," Rachel said. "But I can't face them... Not yet..."

"When do you think you'll be up to that challenge?" Jimmy asked.

"Tomorrow,"

"It is tomorrow," Jimmy reminded her, showing her his digital watch.

"When the sun comes up,"

"Okay. But you'd better get some sleep until then. I'll take you home when the storm's over,"

Rachel yawned, curling up to her childhood friend. "Thanks, Jimmy..." she said, immediately drifting off to sleep.

He smiled at her sleeping form.

* * *

The rain stopped after an hour. It was only 3 A.M. Rachel had started to shiver. Jimmy feared for her health in this weather and, against what she probably wanted, decided to take Rachel home himself.

He silently maneuvered her so she was on his back, and stood, carrying her piggy-back.

Her head nestled into the crook of his neck. She sighed and continued sleeping.

Jimmy let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

The dirt path wasn't easy to navigate in the moonlight, but Jimmy made it back to the school. This of course didn't count for his now ripped pajama pants and mud all over him. He was lucky to not have gotten a drop on Rachel and, despite his trips and falls, was lucky not to have awakened her.

He then began the long trip back to... where was he going?

He didn't know where her mother's new house was. Since Eva was the one that called, Jimmy could only guess that Rachel had been at Eva's house when she ran away.

He really, _really_ didn't want to bring her back to her father's house. There was something so... _vile_... about that man that he wouldn't mind staying away from Richard for the rest of his life.

This nixed the idea of bringing her home.

So, he'd have to take her to his house.

He walked silently under the trees and streetlights that lined the sidewalks of the city. If anyone saw him, they'd surely wonder what the two were doing out in the middle of the night, and why he had a girl on his back.

_'Oh well,_' Jimmy thought. '_Let 'em wonder,_'

When he got to the front door of his house, he was cold and out of breath. The frigid night air shuddered past him as he opened the gate and snuck to the front door.

Making sure not to make a sound, he closed the door and tiptoed up the stairs, taking the first left into his own room.

The room had cooled significantly since the window was still opened. Jimmy took this as a sign that maybe his parents didn't know he left to find Rachel.

He went over to the bed and sat on it, removing Rachel's arms from around his neck and her legs from his waist.

When he got up to close the window, she fell over onto his pillow without even the slightest hint that she might wake up from her slumbering state. He smiled fondly at her while in the midst of the flying curtains blown in the night breeze.

After securely shutting the window, he turned back to the girl. Coming back over to his bed, he placed an arm under her head and an arm under her knees and picked her up, moving her more toward the center of the bed so she could be more comfortable. He quietly slipped off her shoes and his own, and moved his tossed covers over her, tucking her in.

But unexpectedly, her arms wrapped around him again, a source of warmth in the chilly room.

"Jimmy? Stay with me, please?" she asked.

Jimmy looked startled. She was awake?

Upon further observation, he discovered that she was actually asleep, either dreaming or completely unaware of what she was saying.

"I can't Rachel. It's improper," he responded, slightly embarrassed at talking to the girl in her comatose state.

"Just like old times Jimmy, when we used to sleep together?"

He blushed at the comment.

Their mothers had often opted to save space by tossing the young couple in one bed on camping trips and so on and so forth.

"Please?" he voice brought him out of his daydream. She shivered beneath him.

And so, taking pity on the freezing girl, he climbed into the bed with her, placing his arms around her to provide warmth. Rachel seemed to relax into his hold, and welcomed the extra warmth unconsciously while she slept.

"Just don't get mad at me in the morning, heh?" he whispered to her.

She giggled.

* * *

Vivian Kudo was no fool.

She knew her son went on an endeavor to find his childhood friend the night before.

She knew he found her.

And finally, she knew that both were behind the door she was currently standing in front of.

As Vivian Kudo stood outside Jimmy's bedroom, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Vivian," the guest said. "Did he find her?"

"Of course he did, Eva," Vivian replied. "He's going to make a fine detective,"

Eva Kaden came onto the landing with Vivian. The latter put a finger to her lips and pulled out a digital camera from her robe pocket. Both women smiled.

CREAK.

The door swung open slightly, the women peeking in to see their children. They tried to stifle giggles.

Both were entangled up in each other. Somehow, Rachel had gotten her upper half on top of Jimmy's chest, while her legs were pinned in between his legs. Jimmy's arm snaked around Rachel's back, while his other hung limply off the bed.

Although the women knew this was a very suggestive position, they both knew better than to expect anything like that from their children, and instead:

CLICK

Jimmy twitched. '_Bright light!_'

He groaned, attempting to turn on his side, but finding something in his way. The big lump was right on top of his chest.

_'Did we get a dog or something?_' he wondered.

Yawning, he slowly opened his eyes to a faceful of brown hair.

His eyes were wide open now. "What the-!" he gasped, sitting up.

Rachel rolled off of him and onto his bed. Jimmy sweatdropped nervously and quickly surveyed the room to see if anyone could possibly have seen that.

Upon seeing his mother and Rachel's mother clenched in fits of giggles, his expression turned to annoyed. And as he saw the camera in his mother's hands, the annoyance only turned to anger.

"What is that!" he practically shouted.

"Shh, Jimmy," Rachel's mother said in between laughs.

"You wouldn't want- to wake Rachel up-" his mother gasped for air from laughing so hard.

Too late.

Rachel yawned and stretched, the bottom of her pajama top pulling up to reveal her stomach, at which Jimmy blushed.

"Jimmy? What are you doing here?" she asked the boy when she saw him.

"Morning, Rach," he greeted.

Rachel sprang up, discovering the two gasping mothers.

"And just what is so funny!" Rachel demanded.

Vivian only pointed to the camera.

Rachel marched over after untangling herself from the bed, and looked at the camera.

Her eyes widened in horror. She knew it was morally wrong for a boy and a girl to sleep in the same bed at their age, but why did it have to come to this?

She blushed miserably and stumbled back to the bed.

"Was it really that bad?" Jimmy asked.

"My advice would be to burn the camera. Burn it!" Rachel said.

"Ouch," Jimmy said. "That must be one bad picture,"

Their mothers only laughed harder.

"Come on, Rachel," her mother finally said. "Our ride leaves in a few hours,"

Silence.

Tears sprang back up in Rachel's eyes. But she wouldn't let them fall. Not now.

"Mommy?"

"What is it, Rachel?" Eva asked, knowing she doesn't like what comes next when Rachel uses the term "mommy".

"I- I-... I think I should stay with Daddy,"

"What!"

"I don't want to leave! All my friends are here!"

"If you think I'm leaving you with that-... man- you are sadly mistaken,"

"Then why not leave her here with Jimmy?" Vivian chimed in.

Jimmy, who'd been staring at the floor for the whole conversation, suddenly snapped his head up. His eyes searched his mother's for signs of a joke. He didn't find any.

"What?" Rachel, Eva, and Jimmy asked all together.

"You heard me. I'm letting Jimmy stay,"

"Since when!" Jimmy exclaimed, thinking of his conversation yesterday.

"Your father and I had a talk after you left about whether you could take care of yourself. We both thought that it was a very brave thing for you to do Jimmy, going after Rachel like that, and we decided that you were old enough to make your own decisions. Especially since we've seen your knack for solving mysteries, young man. You could make quite a living off that!"

Vivian smiled.

"YES!" Jimmy shouted. "Thanks, mom!" he said, hugging her.

"No problem," she replied. "Just promise to write and call once in a while. We'll let you know when we've settled in,"

"Well," Eva said after that tangent. "I'm not sure that I'll leave her here with him, but maybe if he'll check up on her every day at my hus- _Richard_'s house, then I'll allow it,"

"YIPPEE!" Rachel and Jimmy shouted together, hugging each other.

"I can stay!" Rachel said. "Jimmy! I'm staying!" she said, not able to believe it herself.

And she cried tears of joy.

* * *

END 2

* * *

Haha! Another one done. Maybe people will like this one better.

AGAIN: I CAN MAKE A STORY FOR YOU!

Just tell me what you want (in an EMAIL) and I'll work on it!

animebookworm44


	3. Case Three

Here we go!

THIS STORY NEEDS SOME LOVE!

My excuse: I started writing a simple one-shot type story for this, and then it became longer, more complicated, and not so one-shot-y. I still haven't finished it, but it should be up... soon? Maybe?

**Disclaimer:** See Ch 1

PUNISHER1532 AND SON OF THE SPECTER 992: got your requests, and I'm working on them too!

Here we go!

(**BREAK**...which is not currently working)

**Case 3: The Case of the Missing Lunch Box  
**Subject: Missing Item  
Status: Solved

**(BREAK)**

The students cowered in fear at the front of the classroom, staring blatantly at the back of the room. They watched as the object moved, dancing almost. Yes, the science skeleton was _dancing_. This was not supposed to happen!

"A skeleton is an inanimate object, why is it moving?" Rachel hissed to Serena.

"You think I know? They're not supposed to move! It's alive! The skeleton is alive and it's coming for us because we used to make fun of it in science class!" Serena squealed in panic, which sent a bout of squeals throughout the crowd pressed against the chalkboard in order to be far away from the moving skeleton.

Thunder cracked outside as the rain came down harder outside the classroom window. Squeals and shouts could be heard down the halls of the school coming from the classroom.

This is what prompted Jimmy Kudo to start running down the hall in an effort to see what the matter with his classroom was.

He opened the door loudly, immediately seeing the look of distress and horror on the faces of his classmates, who were all huddled at the front of the room.

"Jimmy!" Rachel said, sounding a bit more relaxed.

"Rachel! What happened!" Jimmy asked, coming over to her.

"I don't want to die!" Melissa Johnson screamed, huddling in her cheerleading uniform next to two members of her posse.

"Me either!" One of them said.

"Are you kidding me! This is so cool!" Jacob Stevenson shouted, holding his camera, which he kept with him at all times, up to his eye to take a picture.

"Jimmy! The skeleton!" Serena pointed a shaky finger to the back of the classroom.

Jimmy turned around slowly, expecting to see some disastrous event unfold. He was deeply disappointed when he saw what they were all looking at.

"That's it?" he asked, the disappointment heavy in his voice.

"What do you mean 'That's it?' Skeletons are not supposed to DANCE, Jimmy!" Serena screamed at him, yanking his shirt in an effort to make him understand the terror of the situation.

"The skeleton is not dancing," Jimmy said, walking calmly to the back of the classroom.

"Then explain that!" Melissa shouted at him.

Jimmy turned and stared pointedly at her. She seemed to cringe under his gaze. He sighed once, turning to the skeleton that held the class in fear.

"It's a draft from the outside wind coming through a hole in the wall, pushing the skeleton," he said. And, to make his point, he pushed aside the skeleton (which immediately stopped dancing) and pointed out the hole through which the draft was coming.

The class let out a collective sigh, somberly returning to their seats.

Jimmy sat down behind Rachel, as he usually did, and hissed at her, "You weren't really scared, were you?"

"Not really," she hissed back, lying through her teeth. "But I did figure you'd be the one to figure out what was going on,"

"Excuse me, karate kid," Melissa Johnson said to Rachel. "But I would like to talk to Mr. Smarty-Pants Detective over here," Rachel, offended somewhat, stood and went over to Serena's desk. "Look, just because I'm talking to you, doesn't mean I like you, okay? Someone told me you could help me,"

"Look, first thing's first, you can't talk to Rachel or me like that," Jimmy said, sticking up a finger. "That's no way to talk to someone you're trying to get to help you,"

The girl had never looked so dumbfounded. No one had ever talked to her like that; her dad and his money had made sure of it.

Just then, the teacher arrived.

"Look," Jimmy said to her. "Find me at recess, and we'll talk then. And try to be a little nicer,"

**(BREAK)**

Recess couldn't come soon enough for the class. Algebra was the most boring subject in the history of the planet. And right as Jimmy exited the classroom with Rachel, there stood Melissa Johnson, clutching her math book and looking at Jimmy.

"You go on, Rach, there's something I have to do,"

"Jimmy-" she said, and then walked away with Serena.

"Come with me," Jimmy said to the cheerleader.

While she walked behind him, Jimmy thought about the things he had observed about this particular girl. '_Cheerleader... obvious, however I believe she's head cheerleader. Has a knack for gymnastics, is the most popular girl in school, and I believe she has an affinity for chocolate. What could she possibly need my help with?_'

He paused by the janitor's closet, waiting for the red light to turn off the video camera before searching in his pocket for the key. Finding it, he was able to open the door in three seconds flat, and he held his hand out for Melissa.

"A janitor's closet? Do I have-" she was cut off when Jimmy, looking at his watch, pulled her inside and closed the door rapidly behind her. "Jimmy Kudo! Why are we in a janitor's closet!" she shrieked at him in the dark.

Jimmy pulled on the cord that turned on the light. "It's not so much the janitor's closet we're here for as much as the room behind it," he said, fishing for another key in another pocket. "This room and the one behind it happen to be the only two places in the school without security cameras, which is better for my purposes. Plus, I'm friendly with the janitors. It's always good to have friends who are ignored by much of the populous. You'd be amazed what janitors hear," As he said this, he bent down on the floor and pushed the mop and mop bucket out of the way.

This revealed a small door down on the floor, which Jimmy unlocked and then crawled through. Melissa followed him rather skeptically.

"This is a room behind the fourth floor lockers. No one but the old principal, the janitors and I know of its existence, well you do too now. I expect you won't tell anyone. The room was originally supposed to be a secret room for a counterfeit money operation, but it never got started because the group that was going to use it was disband a few years back. It wasn't that hard to figure out, though, with all the clues they left behind. I sometimes go here to think. Along with that, there are back doors to every locker on the fourth floor, which has its advantages," Jimmy turned on the light and sat down in a chair on one side of a desk that was the lone occupant of the room. He indicated for Melissa to sit opposite him. "How may I be of assistance? You should make this quick, recess ends in ten minutes,"

Melissa didn't quite know what to say. She felt as if she were put on the spot. "Uh-" she started. "The dance last Friday,"

"Yes?"

"The- uh- cheerleaders put on the bake sale that was the snacks,"

"Right," Jimmy prodded, trying to get her to be faster.

"Right. The money that we collected was supposed to go toward new uniforms,"

"Didn't you get new uniforms last year?"

"Well yes, but they're so last year! Anyway, the money, it was- it was -er- stolen,"

"And you want me to get it back?"

"Well, yes, and- well, the principal thinks they found the person who did it,"

"Who?"

"They think it's... me. I was the only one alone at the bake sale table for a significant amount of time right at the end of the dance. She's going to give me a month of detention and insist I reimburse the squad, as well as kick me off it. I need you to help prove my innocence," she blurted out.

"...Ah..." Jimmy said, putting a hand to his chin as if he were thinking. "This could be tricky. You would be the main suspect for opportunity, if I were conducting the investigation,"

"But I didn't do it!"

"I know. You had the opportunity, but not the motive. You wouldn't need the money for yourself; your father's richer than anyone in town. You could simply ask for the money, and he would give it to you without question. No, the person we're looking for is someone who might need the money,"

Melissa let out a sigh. "So you believe me?"

"Yes. Add to that that you have no criminal record so far in your school career, and I believe you are a worthy client," Jimmy said, sticking a hand out for her to shake.

"Again, this doesn't mean that I like you or anything," she said.

"No, ma'am, our relationship is simply client-employer," he said. "I'm going to need details. Perhaps we can talk and walk? I assume you need to go to your locker before English class,"

"Right again," she said as Jimmy opened the small door again. This time she crawled through first. "What do you need to know?"

"We should start with the details of the crime. What happened during the bake sale?" Jimmy asked, gesturing for her to wait before he looked at his watch and opened the door out to the hallway, ushering her along before the video camera came on again.

"It was nothing special, really. The squad signed up for fifteen minute slots in teams of three. I of course volunteered for the last slot with Jen Cooley, my bffl, that's best friend for life," she started as they walked down the hallway toward the stairs. "The coach also assigned Gina Martin to be on our slot. She's nice, but her back-handspring is less than adequate. Do you know- I wonder why she made the team at all! With the way she dresses-"

"Off topic," Jimmy reminded her.

"Oh," Melissa said, clearing her throat. "Well, everything was going fine until Jen's boyfriend Michael showed up. We were really busy with all the orders. People really like to support the cheerleading squad. Anyway, Michael asked Jen for the last dance, which is sooooo romantic, she couldn't say no! Both Gina and I encouraged her to go, even though she might have gotten in trouble with the coach. So she went off with Mike, while Gina and I served everyone. And then Gina had to go to the bathroom, so she left me. I was all alone at the table serving people for... two minutes before Jen came back, and then Gina, and everyone who was at the dance behind them. That's when I left for the bathroom,"

"Your locker's on the third floor?" Jimmy asked, taking advantage of the break in the conversation.

"Yeah, there weren't any more upstairs. My locker is right next to the cafeteria, which is where we set up for the bake sale. I didn't forget to tell you that did I?"

"Yeah, you did,"

"Oh. Well, we had already decided that I was going to take the lunch box with all the money in it after the dance. But, when I got back from the bathroom, both Gina, Jen, and the money were gone. I figured one of them had taken it home. It was a big lunch box and hard to miss, so I didn't think they'd forget about taking it. Nothing else would explain why it wasn't there. Then, I passed through the security check they always do at the end of dances, and left."

When they arrived at the locker, Jen Cooley was waiting for Melissa.

"There you are! I have been waiting all recess! God, I had to put up with Ross Dillan for three whole minutes! I can't believe he has the locker next to yours, it's so unfair! I am going to the coach about this. She has to get your locker changed. What are you doing with Kudo?" She talked really fast, Jimmy noticed. That seemed to be how most cheerleaders talked.

Melissa looked uneasily at Jimmy, and then said a quick "Nothing,"

"I hope not," she said. "Did you know- I heard the principal was going to talk to you at lunch about the missing money? They think it's you! What are you going to do about this!"

"I... don't know," Melissa said, looking downcast as she tried her combination. But, finding it didn't work, she pulled on it a few times before getting in a huff and trying it again.

"You can't just not know. They're going to kick you off the squad! Melissa you have to do something!"

"I'm- trying-" she replied, pulling furiously on the lock that wouldn't open. She banged her head on the locker. "Could this day get any worse?"

"Was the lock okay this morning?" Jimmy asked, butting in. Jen looked sharply at him, as if daring him to talk again.

"I don't know. My bus comes too late for me to go to my locker every morning. I just take my algebra book home with me, and go to class the next morning,"

Jimmy's mouth made an "oh" with no sound.

"GAH!" she sighed exasperatedly, banging her head on the locker three times.

"Melissa, don't do that! You lose brain cells!" Jen reprimanded.

"But if I don't get into my locker, I don't get my English textbook. If I don't get my English book, Mrs. Haverly will be mad at me. She'll think I lost it. '_Do you know what those books cost?_' she'll say. '_They cost fifty dollars each! You better not have lost it, Miss Johnson,_'"

"I know where you can find an extra English book, if you need it," Jimmy said, trying to be helpful.

"Really, Jimmy? Thanks, that would be fantastic," Melissa said, looking truly grateful. Jen looked at Melissa, as if trying to figure out what would compel her to talk to this guy.

"Uh, I'll go get it. See you in English," Jimmy said, anxious to get out of there from the glare he was getting from Jen. As soon as he was out of earshot, he saw Jen leaning toward Melissa and talking in harsh whispers, probably about him.

**(BREAK)**

"Thank you so much, Jimmy," Melissa said, as he handed her the book. Jen, who was sitting next to Melissa, glared at him. There were a few other people in the class that looked at them oddly, Rachel and Serena being two of them.

"I told you, make friends with janitors, and there are untold benefits, including unlimited access to the lost and found," Jimmy smiled at her.

She smiled back, taking the book and leafing through it. Then, she patted the seat on the other side of her, indicating for him to sit down. Jen looked at her oddly, as well as half the other people in the class. Melissa Johnson did not talk to just anyone. Melissa Johnson did not invite just anyone to sit next to her in class. What was going on?

Jimmy took the preferred seat and said, "We can talk later. In the meantime, can you make a list of everyone who is on your cheerleading squad and people our age on your bus?"

"Sure," she replied, just as the teacher came in.

"Good Morning, class!" she said in perfect English.

"I wish I could speak that well," Melissa mumbled in her seat. Next to her, Jen Cooley nodded.

"Miss Johnson, Miss Cooley, do you have something to say?" she addressed them.

"No," they both said simultaneously.

"They were admiring your perfect English accent, Mrs. Haverly," Jimmy said, in perfect English himself. The class, including Melissa and Jen looked to him in awe.

"You are not so bad yourself, Mr. Kudo," Mrs. Haverly replied. "And I'm sure Miss Johnson and Miss Cooley appreciate you covering up for them," she piqued and eyebrow.

"No cover-up, ma'am, just the truth," Jimmy said with a smile.

Mrs. Haverly looked flustered. She didn't know whether to reprimand them for talking, or whether to take the complement from her students. She settled for nodding and clearing her throat before instructing the class to turn to page 30 in their books.

"That was amazing, Jimmy," Melissa hissed.

"Yeah," Jen agreed.

"It was no biggie," he replied. "You just have to know how to handle people,"

The class was a review of pronouns, and altogether was rather boring to Jimmy. His father had taught him English since he was a little boy, so he didn't really need this class, although he was required to take it. He doodled slightly in his notebook as the teacher talked, every once in a while glancing over to Melissa to see her writing notes, as well as the lists he asked her for.

Halfway through the class, Melissa slipped him a piece of paper with the names of her squad-mates and people on her bus.

'_Finally_,' he thought. '_Some leeway_,'

He looked at one side, where it said:

Cheer Squad  
Jen Cooley- BFFL!  
Gina Martin  
Casey Littleton  
Liz Simpson  
Chelsea Simpson  
Mary Jenkins  
Christina Polari  
Tessa Oi  
Noah Riley  
Ashlee Norton-  
Allison Mullins-  
Andrea McQuaide- (The three A's)

'_Hmm... none of those girls are broke, poor, or financially lacking. I don't think it was anyone from the cheer squad that did it, but I can't completely rule them out. Maybe someone on her bus?_'

Bus (FYI- I think this is everyone, but I'm not sure. I don't really pay attention to bus people)  
Jen Cooley- BFFL  
Patrick Osbourne  
Leah White  
Jesse Quinn  
Mike Samuels -Captain of football team- total hottie!  
Emily Roberts  
Roxy Bartner  
Ross Dillan  
Rose Jameson  
Matt Burke  
Meghan Regan

'_Well, it could be any of these people! Jen Cooley is on both lists, though. I wonder..._' Jimmy started thinking.

**(BREAK)**

"Did you think of anything?" Melissa asked him after class. It was lunch, and Melissa had every intention of going to the cafeteria, so she started walking that way. To her happiness, Jimmy didn't argue.

"Well, I did think of a few things, but I'll need some more information before I can actually go anywhere," Jimmy said, taking the English book she had handed to him.

"Well, at least you're making progress, right? I can tell you anything you want to know at lunch," she said, turning the corner onto the hallway to the cafeteria. Once there, she froze unexpectedly, so unexpectedly that Jimmy ran into her.

The principal was at the end of the hall, tapping her shoe against the tile floor, seemingly waiting for Melissa, whose locker she was standing in front of with an awaiting janitor.

"Miss Johnson," she said, in a haughty tone when they got near. "We have reason to believe you were the one that stole the money from the cheerleading bake sale at Friday night's dance. You were the only one who was alone with the box at any time during the dance. Now, because we know you didn't take the money with you from the dance, we think it is in your locker. Please open it for us,"

"But Mrs. Smith! I didn't! I swear I didn't take the money!" Melissa tried very hard to make the principal believe her.

"Open your locker,"

With tears threatening to spill over her eyes, Melissa tried her combination. When it didn't open, like before, the principal became angry.

"Mr. Spencer," she addressed the janitor. "Cut the lock,"

The janitor got out his tools and, with an apologetic look to the girl, cut the lock off the locker. After clearing out the two pieces of the lock, the principal shoved him aside to open the locker.

And there, on the top shelf, was the lunch box.

Jimmy was surprised. This made the case much more interesting.

"Principal Smith, I swear, I didn't take the money. I didn't put it in my locker. I haven't been inside that locker all day, you can ask anyone: Jen Cooley or- or Jimmy Kudo! Please, Principal Smith, I didn't take this money!" she said, tears coming down her cheeks.

"Haha! See, she did do it!" shouted someone in the crowded hall.

"No!" she screamed back at them.

"Finally, Melissa gets in trouble for something. I knew you couldn't be a teacher's pet forever," this came from her locker-neighbor, Ross Dillan, known for being slightly stupid, and for his habits as a bully.

"You take that back, Ross!" she said to him.

"No! I've been waiting for this day to come since preschool," some of his posse snickered behind him.

"As much as I'd like to believe in your innocence, Miss Johnson, I'm afraid this would count very much against you. I have no choice but to take you off the cheerleading squad, and give you a month's worth of detention. Wait until your father hears about this," Principal Smith said, turning and walking away.

Melissa ran in the other direction, presumably to the bathroom where she could cry in peace. A few of her cheerleading friends followed her, trying to cheer her up. The crowd from the scene quickly dissipated as most of the students rounded the bend into the cafeteria.

"Serves her right," Ross Dillan mumbled as he lifted his lock and opened his locker. Jimmy noticed that the lock wasn't closed. '_Does he always leave his lock like that? Would he assume that no one would have the guts to steal from him because he bullies everyone?_'

Jimmy started off in the other direction from the cafeteria, anxious to talk to Melissa.

Once there, however he had no idea what to do. Loud crying was coming from the girl's bathroom. But that was it; it was the girl's bathroom. He couldn't go in there, right! He took a breath and knocked on the door.

"You can come in, it's a public bathroom!" someone said in a haughty-cheerleader voice.

"The problem is, I'm not a girl," Jimmy replied.

"Well then what would you need to be in the girl's bathroom for?" the girl asked again.

"I need to talk to Melissa,"

"Melissa's a little busy crying right now, can I take a message?" she said, sarcastically.

Jimmy cursed silently and turned away from the door. This was when he spotted Rachel and Serena on their way to the cafeteria.

"Rachel!" Jimmy said, running after her.

"Jimmy?" Rachel asked, rather awkwardly. She didn't know what had gotten into him to make him hang around with the cheerleading crowd. That wasn't like him at all.

"Can you do me a favor?" he asked.

"Depends. What is it?" she asked.

"I need you to go into the girl's bathroom and get Melissa Johnson. She's crying, and I need to talk to her immediately,"

"Melissa Johnson? Jimmy, what's gotten into you! You've never liked the cheerleaders before!"

"I'm working on her _case_, Rachel,"

"You're not a real dang detective, Jimmy Kudo!" Rachel said, stomping off to the cafeteria. Serena trailed behind her after giving one last withering look at Jimmy.

Jimmy sighed. Women, now there was a real mystery.

Returning to the girl's bathroom door, he knocked again. "Look, I want to help. Tell Melissa I'll be waiting for her in the cafeteria if she wants-" he was going to finish with "to talk" but suddenly a hand reached out and pulled him in.

Jimmy seized up for the first few moments, his thoughts revolving around '_Oh. My. God. I'm in the girl's bathroom,_' but once his shock got over, his eyes roamed around the room. It wasn't that different from the boy's bathroom, beside the tile strip around the room about a foot below the ceiling was the color pink, not blue. That, and there was a couch down one end where the urinals were in the boy's bathroom. This happened to be the place where Melissa sat, crying.

"It's- no- use, Jimmy. They- they think I- did it," she talked with sobs and sniffles in between her words.

"But I think differently, and I want to help prove it," Jimmy said.

"... What do you need to know?"

"What happened in school that Friday, just before the day ended?"

"Well, Jen was waiting for me at my locker, as usual. She was trying hard to ignore Ross Dillan, who is a regular jerk and has the locker next to mine. He's had it in for me ever since I accidentally spilled ice cream on him when he was trying to ask me out in fifth grade. Not that I would have gone out with him anyway, he was rather poor and- oh, off topic again! So anyway, I come over to my locker to get my books, and I open the door to try and block him from talking to me or Jen, but he starts hanging on the door anyway, being an idiot buttface. That's when Jen said something rather mean, and he left. I got my books, and Jen and I headed for the bus,"

"Good. Question: does Jen have your locker combination?"

"I never told her, but I wouldn't be surprised if she knew. She's seen me do it dozens of times,"

"Melissa, why isn't Jen here? She's your bffl!" a girl asked.

"She was going to go try to get the principal to reconsider my punishment," Melissa said. "What else, Jimmy?"

"Who were the people, preferably the last ones, to buy pastries from you at the bake sale?"

"From me? Well, there was the Ashton twins, Patti Porter, Zoe Morin, two kids from the next grade, Charlie Green and Rob Sambursky. They were all before I went to the bathroom at the end of the night,"

He shook his head, then asked, "Did any of the pastries come in boxes?"

"We sold donuts by the dozen or half dozen, they came in boxes,"

"Do you remember the people who bought dozens?"

"Oh no. Jen was handling the donuts, you'd have to ask her. No one bought donuts from me when I was alone,"

"Were there any empty boxes at all?"

"No, all the boxes were full of donuts. We didn't have any extras,"

"Thanks, I think that's it,"

"You know who did it!" she asked, hopefully.

"I think so. I just need to talk to Jen to confirm my suspicion,"

**(BREAK)**

When Jen Cooley arrived at Melissa's locker that afternoon, she was greeted by not only Melissa, but Jimmy Kudo and the principal as well.

"Melissa? What's this all about?"

"Jimmy said he's found who took the money!" she said, very excited.

"Yes, well, I certainly hope this is not a hoax," Principal Smith said. "You still have detention, young lady. And if this is a hoax, Kudo will get detention too,"

Jimmy and Melissa cringed visibly.

"Just a few questions, Jen, before our other guest gets here," Jimmy said. "Do you remember who bought boxes of a dozen donuts at last Friday's bake sale?"

"No, why should I?" she asked. "There were a lot of people who did, Kudo,"

"What? Another confrontation with the principal, Johnson? I didn't know you were so bad," spoke a voice from down the hall.

"Ross Dillan, just the person I wanted to see," Jimmy said.

"What? Why me? Come on, Kudo, I don't even talk to you," Ross said.

"I want to talk to you because you were the one who stole the money from the bake sale, and framed it on Melissa,"

A gasp was audibly heard from all the people there, those invited, and those who had come to watch.

"Please, Kudo-"

"Shall I explain?" Jimmy said, and started again before waiting for an answer. "You needed money, money you didn't have. Your family barely makes enough to support you and your brothers and sisters, and you couldn't ask them to bail you out of your situation, you didn't have money to spare. You tried to think of somewhere you could get the money, and a flier for the dance and the bake sale caught your eye. It then occurred to you that, because it was the cheerleader's fundraiser, and everyone loved the cheerleaders, they would make a lot of money, and that it would be easy to steal,"

"The day of the dance and bake sale, you were harassing Melissa at her locker, as you usually did, when it occurred to you that you wouldn't be able to get the money out of the dance without anyone noticing, especially since the principal and chaperones were scanning everyone at the door and checking everything they went out with. Any boxes would be seen. You would need a place to hide it. Your locker wouldn't do any good, it was always open because of your security about no one stealing from you because you were a bully. And if the principal did happen to have the investigation lead to you, your locker would be the first place they looked for the money. Your first thought was to use Melissa. Her locker was next to yours, and you'd had a grudge against her for a while. Plus, she was part of the cheer squad, and it would be easy to get the other girls out of the picture and get the investigation to lead straight to her, since they would look within the squad first,"

"But, you also couldn't have Melissa stumbling along the money before you had a chance to claim it. You slipped your lock onto Melissa's locker, and hers onto yours. No one would suspect it because your lock was never locked anyway. This made sure that only you could get into Melissa's locker when you decided to come get the money,"

"That night, you came to the dance and ordered a box of donuts,"

"You're right!" Jen interjected. "He did buy a box of donuts!"

"This would serve as a container to get the money away from the table without casting suspicion. There were a lot of people with boxes of baked goods, so you didn't seem out of place. But again, you couldn't take the donut box outside because they were checking the boxes and bags people left with. You went to Melissa's locker, put the money in, and left the dance,"

"Melissa is on your bus, so you knew that she didn't have time to go to her locker in the morning before class, so suspicion about the locker wouldn't even be cast until she had to go after algebra, but that could be chalked up to the lock, which can sometimes be seen as temper mental. Then she didn't need to get in for lunch, since she brings money, so you just had to get the money before the end of the day, when she would really need to get into her locker,"

"The problem was, the principal was faster than you thought. She confronted Melissa about the missing money at lunch, which was earlier than you planned. After that, you didn't have the money, but at least you weren't blamed for taking it,"

"What are you talking about!" Ross shouted at him. "How could you prove this? Why would I want the stupid money, anyway?"

"You should have checked the lost-and-found, again, Ross. The extra English book I let Melissa borrow earlier was yours. You needed money to pay for a lost book, which doesn't come cheap: fifty dollars. You did it all in vain, over a trivial matter,"

"You still can't prove anything about it!"

"I can too," Jimmy said. "First off, here's your book. It says 'Ross Dillan' on the inside cover. Next," Jimmy said, as he leaned on Melissa's locker. Swiftly, he closed the lock on Ross' locker door. "Melissa, if you would please try to open this lock,"

Melissa, who was listening to the whole affair with hope for herself and admiration for Jimmy, slowly approached the locker and picked it up. The crowd had grown bigger while Jimmy had explained the whole thing, and they now stood with baited breath to see if Jimmy had been right.

Melissa slid the lock to the right, 43, then to the left around the 43, 19, then back right, 5. She held her breath, and pulled.

The lock slid open in her hands.

She let out a half-sob as she tore her hands away from the open lock and flung them around Jimmy's neck, kissing him square on the cheek. Everyone clapped at the display and Jimmy's cleverness. A flash of light proved that the moment would be caught forevermore on film.

"Thank you, Jimmy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said, hugging him fiercely with relief. She let go of him once to check the open lock again, and then turned and hugged him again.

"All in a day's work," he said to her. She giggled.

"As for you, Mister Dillan," came the imposing voice of Principal Smith. "Detention, for two months. I also expect you to work extra hard to make up to the cheerleaders, as well as Miss Johnson for all the trouble you caused them. Perhaps a few weeks as the mascot at the basketball games will knock some sense into you,"

She grabbed him by the arm and towed him away from the scene.

"And Miss Johnson, don't bother coming to detention!" she called back over her shoulder.

Some more pictures were taken, as well as some notes by a journalist for the school paper, before the crowd around them dispersed.

Melissa sighed, still beaming, and turned to Jimmy. "Thank you, really,"

"No problem," Jimmy said. "See you around," he waved back over his shoulder as he started for the door.

**(BREAK)**

END CASE 3

**(BREAK)**

_This case was really the starter for me within the school. The principal started to trust me, the cheerleaders were indebted to me, and all was once again right with the world. Except for Rachel. What's gotten into her, anyway? I mean seriously, she didn't have to go and blow my head off when I asked her to go get Melissa in the bathroom! I even told her I was working on a case, which was supposed to be confidential! And she said I wasn't a real detective! I was so MAD at her._

_But, it's hard to be mad at her now, in the wake of success. I wonder if she was there in the crowd when I told everyone who did it. Did she see me? Was she impressed? I hope so. I don't want her to be mad at me. WHY ARE WOMEN SO CONFUSING!_

_Jimmy Kudo_

**(BREAK)**

There we go! I even added a Jimmy note on the end! I think I'll do that from now on. Kind of like Jimmy's afterthoughts on the case, what happened, etc.

I'm REALLY sorry about not updating. Again, the one I was working on started to blow out of proportion, and I just had to take a break from it. Unfortunately, it was a rather long break.

IF YOU REVIEW, I MAY BE FASTER!

I am going to attempt to write one of these a month, though, reviews or no (although I really hope for reviews). Thank you for the support I've been getting anyway. It's hard to come up with these fresh off the top of your head!

animebookworm44


	4. Case 4

And another chapter for the Case Files of Jimmy Kudo

Thanks for reviewing!

REVIEW AGAIN!

**Disclaimer:** Standard

And now, onto the ficlet! Here you are, Son of the Specter 992. Your suggestion, with a few additions.

* * *

**Case 4:**** The Case of the Poisoned Teacher  
**Subject: Murder  
Status: Solved

* * *

This particularly rainy and gloomy day was accentuated for Jimmy by the fact that Rachel was avoiding him.

"Seen the school paper?" Serena Sebastian asked Jimmy. He sat at his desk in homeroom, staring over at Rachel, who was avidly avoiding his gaze. Serena plopped her copy down in front of him. "You made the front page."

She was right. There was a large picture of Melissa Johnson kissing Jimmy's cheek under the headline: Middle Schooler or Detective Prodigy? Jimmy Kudo Does it Again!

Jimmy sighed and pushed away the paper. "It was nothing!"

"I bet it's not "nothing" to Rachel," Serena said. "For a detective, you sure are dense,"

"What are you talking about?"

"Rachel's seen the paper, Jimmy. How do you think this makes her feel?"

"I don't know! I'm not her!" Jimmy said.

"Jimmy!" Serena spun around, and Jimmy looked over her shoulder as Melissa Johnson waved cutely at him, smiling. She held up a copy of the paper, and blew him a kiss.

Jimmy smiled hesitatingly at her. She turned around to talk to her cheerleading friends.

"I'm never gonna live this one down, am I?" he said through gritted teeth.

"You're going to have to, if you ever want to talk to Rachel again." Serena said, and got up to talk to her best friend. Jimmy stared after her as the two talked, wondering why Rachel was acting the way she was.

Just then, the teacher walked in. She was drinking her morning coffee when she saw the state of the classroom. "Come class! Sit down now! I know what happened yesterday was very exciting for at least Jimmy and Melissa... and I suppose the cheerleaders... possibly the principal... and me, I guess, but please! Calm- calm down, every- everyone," she sighed. A hand came up to grasp her chest.

"Miss Matthews? Are you alright?" Jen Cooley asked from her seat next to Melissa.

"Of course!" Ms. Matthews said. She swallowed hard and turned toward the blackboard. "Nothing to worry about! Now, we'll start with our math, students. Today, we- we will be learning about- the quadratic equation. It goes as follows: a- times- b- I mean- a-" the teacher started coughing madly.

"Miss Matthews!" Melissa shouted, and she and Jen led the class forward to come to the aid of their teacher.

She fell to the floor, still coughing, until she finally gave one last gasp and was still.

"Everybody move!" Jimmy shouted, coming to the front of the classroom. He felt his teacher's neck. "I can't find a pulse!" he said.

"She's dead!" someone wailed.

Jimmy prepared himself to perform CPR. "Someone go get the nurse, and someone call 911, NOW!" He lowered his cheek to his teacher's mouth, trying to feel or hear a breath. Behind him, someone burst into hysterics. He tilted Miss Matthews' head upward and opened her mouth. He swiftly lowered his mouth to hers and exhaled two deep breaths, ignoring the gasps of horror behind him at his kissing the teacher. He clasped his left hand over his right and pushed down on her chest, counting.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-"

"Jimmy! The nurse isn't in today!" the boy who went to find the nurse shouted to him.

"I called 911." A girl said as she closed her cell phone. "But they won't be here for ten minutes!"

"So, someone get the principal!" Rachel shouted for Jimmy, as he was two busy starting with his second set of 30 compressions to 2 breaths.

"Miss Matthews!" Someone wailed, possibly the same girl who flew into hysterics.

The class waited with baited breath as Jimmy continued with his sets. By the fourth, the principal had entered the classroom.

"My god!" Mrs. Smith said, sweating. "Someone call 911!"

"We already did! They won't be here in time!"

At the end of the fifth set, Jimmy sat back on his legs. He felt his teacher's pulse once again. Still nothing.

The class, and principal, waited for his judgment.

"She's gone." he said. "I didn't- I couldn't save her."

"Don't think about it, Jimmy," Rachel said, tearful. "You tried. That's more than any of the rest of us did." She stooped low, and hugged him. Jimmy put an arm around her too as the class sadly stared at the body of their beloved math teacher.

* * *

"Cyanide poisoning," Inspector Maguire said simply.

"What?" Jimmy said. "You're kidding. That's only used in the movies."

The police had shown up with the ambulance from the 911 call. The class had been asked to remain in the classroom until the lab results came back. The rest of the school was allowed to leave. It had been a trying day.

"Apparently not." Maguire said. "I heard you tried to save her. Sorry to say that she was dead as a doornail before you even started CPR. Cyanide poisoning is usually very sudden, so there's no point in asking if she had been acting suspicious."

"She hadn't been, anyway, until she started clutching her chest and breathing rapidly." Rachel supplied.

"But that does give us a clue. She had to have been poisoned very recently before she died," Jimmy said. "All teachers are required to be at the school at seven o'clock in the morning. So, she couldn't have been poisoned before she got here."

"Which means, it's someone in the school." Maguire said.

"But who would want to murder Miss Matthews?" the hysterical girl, Casey Littleton (of the cheerleading squad) interjected.

"She was my favorite teacher!" Jen Cooley said.

The rest of the class started chattering among themselves about how good a teacher Miss Matthews was, and how sad they were that she had died.

"Quiet down, now!" Maguire said. "The more you talk, the longer this takes, and that means you'll be detained from going home. You all want to go home, right?" There was silence. "Good. So, she started breathing heavily, and clutching her chest. Then what?"

"She fainted," Rachel said. "Jimmy tried to find her pulse. He called for people to get the nurse, and dial 911."

"The nurse wasn't there," Matt Burke, the one who went to get the nurse, said.

"911 said they'd take at least ten minutes," Roxy Bartner, the one who called, said.

"Why was the nurse off today?" Maguire asked the principal.

"I advised her to, actually." Mrs. Smith said. "She'd been working very hard lately, and her husband had just divorced her, I thought she could use a day. Little did I know she'd be needed like this."

"Has she been informed of the situation? There may be some depression from those incidents. It sounds like she may need some counseling, especially if she begins to feel guilty about this."

"I called her to tell her, just like I called all the other personnel and school board members that needed to know immediately. There will be an email going out to the parents of all the children in the school, with information about the wake and funeral." she said. "I just can't believe this is happening."

"Can you think of anyone who had a grudge against her?"

"No, Miss Matthews was a perfectly lovely teacher. I don't understand why- well, I suppose there was that incident with the janitors."

"And incident?" Jimmy asked.

"Some months ago, some school supplies went missing from the janitor's closet on this floor. They all turned up in this classroom. Miss Matthews didn't know how to explain their being here, and the janitors were quite angry."

'_You're kidding! Angry enough to kill because of some missing school supplies? Don't think so. Plus, I know the janitors, they wouldn't hurt anybody._' Jimmy thought. '_Now, where would be a logical place to hide cyanide inside the school?_'

"Right. I'll talk to the janitors. You kids stay here. If all goes well, you'll be free to go in half an hour." Inspector Maguire turned and left the classroom.

Rachel and Jimmy rejoined their classmates huddled by the windows. "Hey Rach," he whispered to her. "I need a favor."

"Will it help Ms. Matthews?" she hissed back at him.

He nodded, trying to appear nonchalant. "Serena likes acting, right? Tell her to pretend she got a cut, and needs to go to the nurse's office."

Rachel looked skeptical. "And just _how_ is this going to help?" Jimmy just looked back casually. Rachel sighed and moved through the crowd toward her friend.

Suddenly, Jimmy felt an arm loop through his. "Oh, Jimmy!" It was Melissa. "That was awfully brave of you, what you did for poor Miss Matthews. It's such a shame."

"Yeah, it is." He said, trying to shrug her arm off of him.

"Are you going to solve this case?" she whispered, clutching his arm tighter.

"I'm going to try," Jimmy said.

Melissa tsked. "Jimmy, you should know, there is no such thing as 'try'. For instance, _try_ to pick up this pencil." She placed a bright purple pencil on the counter by the window. Jimmy only had to look at it to figure out he couldn't try to pick it up. He could either pick it up, or not pick it up. "Can't do it, can you?" she asked, and laughed. "It seems I've just outsmarted the talented Jimmy Kudo. What do I get as a reward?"

"Uh..." Jimmy spluttered.

"Ouch!"

'_Perfect timing, Serena._' Jimmy commended. He pulled away from Melissa to pretend to see what was wrong with Serena.

"Mrs. Smith! I cut my hand! It _hurts_!" she played.

'_Well, don't overdo it, Serena!_' Jimmy scolded. '_Then she'll know something's up!_'

"I need antibiotics!" she said.

"The nurse isn't in today, Miss Sebastian. You'll just have to-"

"I know where the nurse keeps her band-aids!" Rachel quickly stepped in. "I'll take Serena to the nurse's office. It'll be no time at all." she quickly pushed Serena toward the door.

"But it's lock-!"

"We'll find a janitor! Thanks, bye!" Rachel said as the door closed behind her.

'_Nice save, Rachel._' he thought. Then, he turned to Melissa. '_Girls always go to the bathroom in groups..._' "Melissa, I need you to do me a favor."

"What's in it for me?" she asked.

"Uh, what do you want?" Jimmy asked. '_Jeez, what happened to her being indebted to me for solving that bake-sale case?_'

"Oh, nothing." She replied. "I'll do this one, but only because it's you. What do you need?"

"Take a bunch of people, and ask to go to the bathroom. I need to sneak out."

"Right." she said, and turned toward Jen. "Jen, cheerleader bathroom break. Let's go."

Jen nodded, and signaled for the other cheerleaders to come. There were seven in total. "Perfect." he said. "Just stay together so I can hide behind you."

"Mrs. Smith? The Cheers and I need to go to the bathroom."

Mrs. Smith, who still seemed hung up on Rachel's and Serena's departure, nodded absently and said "Sure, sure."

Jimmy huddled behind the Cheers as they moved casually toward the door. A few people in the class saw him leaving with the Cheers, but didn't call attention to it. There was a tight squeeze through the doorway, but altogether it was fairly easy.

"Thanks, Melissa." Jimmy said, once out of the classroom. He started quickly down the hall.

"No problem." she called after him, and sighed to her squad-mates. "Isn't he adorable?"

"Yeah..." they all sighed.

* * *

Jimmy met Rachel and Serena outside the door to the nurse's office.

"Alright, Jimmy, what is this about?" Rachel asked, hands on her hips.

"If you ask me, it's a bit too convenient that the nurse had a day off today of all days." Jimmy said, trying the door handle to find it locked.

"Oh, it's locked." Serena said. Jimmy looked at her as if to say '_Thank you, Captain Obvious._' "Where's a janitor when you need one?"

The trio turned around, and there he was. Serena let out a small scream at the abruptness.

"Need something, Jimmy?" he asked.

"If you don't mind, Mr. Thomas, I need this door opened. That, and I'll need to ask you a few questions." Jimmy said.

Mr. Thomas the janitor got out his ring of keys, and fitted one into the lock. "The nurse is out today, Jimmy; I don't know what you'll find in there." The door opened smoothly, and the four of them entered the office.

"Do you have the keys to every room in the school?" Jimmy asked.

"All the janitors do. And by all, I mean me and Ricky, since we're the only two janitors here."

"Does anyone else?"

"The principal, maybe. But I don't know. 'Never seen her use 'em."

"What do you know about some missing school supplies that were found in Miss Matthews' classroom?"

"Just that there were missing school supplies, and they were found in her classroom."

"Great." Jimmy rolled his eyes. "So, no hard feelings about the incident?"

"Hardly. I mean, it's just school supplies. We had more, so it's not like they robbed us of everything. And they weren't the hardest things to get, either: toilet paper, paper towels, and some pens. Nothing big."

"I see." Jimmy said, and entered the nurse's office.

"What are we looking for, Jimmy?" Rachel asked.

"This is the most probable place to find the poison that killed Ms. Matthews."

"I doubt that the nurse would carry Cyanide, Jimmy." Rachel pointed out.

"Well, would a chemistry teacher? No! Students go about in chemistry labs all the time. It would be too risky putting cyanide in a classroom. But the nurse's office always has someone in it. They would see if a child went someplace they weren't supposed to go. That, and the fact that the nurse is gone today, so the room would be locked, make it the most probable place for hiding the poison."

"So, what should we look for?" Serena repeated Rachel's question.

"Something that could hide Cyanide. A thermos, perhaps? Or something like it. A bottle..."

"Jimmy, there are tons of bottles here. It's the nurse's office. She has all types of medication!" Serena said.

"Try looking for one that's out of place. Maybe in the trash can?"

"It's empty." Rachel said.

"When do you empty the trash cans?" Jimmy asked Mr. Thomas.

"Typically, every day. Especially in the nurse's office. Never know what's in that trash bag." he said, leaning against the doorway.

"But what time? In the early morning, or at night?" Jimmy asked, opening some cabinets, and peering inside.

"Night. After everyone's left. That's when we clean most of the school." the janitor answered.

"Then why is there mud on this floor?" Jimmy said. The three came over to look. There was a brown splotch of mud by the desk leg. "Someone's been in here this morning."

"They could have come last night, after the janitors had cleaned." Serena said. "What if the nurse came back for something? Maybe she forgot some antidepressants? Poor woman..."

"No, because it only started raining this morning, thereby constituting that the mud couldn't be here unless the murderer walked through the rain this morning."

"But Jimmy, that's almost everyone in the school!" Rachel said.

"There are different types of mud, Rachel. Different places have different types of dirt, thereby making different types of mud. In a proper lab, I could tell you the region where this person lived, whether they owned a garden, or maybe if there's construction going on around their house, or on their way to the school."

"But... we don't have a lab..." Serena said.

"Right, so we'll just have to do without it. This person isn't exactly a criminal mastermind, or they would have prepared for this. There must be other clues." Jimmy said. "Did you girls find anything that could be poisonous?"

"Nope," Rachel said, sulkily.

"The only thing I found with the word poison in it was "rat poison". And it's covered in icky dust." Serena said, holding up the can. It was red, with a black cap.

"Great. Dead end." Jimmy sighed. "We should get back. Mrs. Smith might get suspicious if you are down here for too long."

They nodded to him, and headed back. Mr. Thomas stayed and locked the door. '_What do I have so far?_' Jimmy asked himself on the way back to the classroom. '_Cause of death, and a body. I don't have motive, opportunity, means! All I've got is mud. I have to be missing something! This case can't be that straightforward. Why would someone kill a middle school math teacher?_' He sighed in exasperation. '_I need a soccer ball._'

They went up two flights, to the landing of the fourth floor, where their classroom was. They passed by several classrooms, empty except for the teachers, and the teacher's lounge.

'_Wait- teacher's lounge!_' Jimmy thought. '_I hadn't given any thought to where she was __before__ she was murdered! That place still has to have some evidence! How could I have missed it!_'

Jimmy re-entered the classroom with Serena and Rachel. The Inspector was back, and making some sort of speech, so the three slipped in unnoticed.

"-janitors have no harbored hatred about the missing supplies incident, from what I could understand. This leaves us primarily without suspects, without murder weapon, motive, means, practically anything that could make our case in a court of law. We need to work extra hard, men- and woman." he said, nodding to a woman gathered in the throng of police. Jimmy had never seen her before, and he was almost positive there was no woman in Maguire's homicide division, so she must have been new. "Dismissed."

The policemen filed out of the classroom and fanned out in both directions.

"Inspector Maguire," Jimmy said, coming forward. "May I go with them? I have some theories I'd like to check out."

"Sure, Kudo. Go ahead." Maguire replied.

Jimmy exited the classroom. He looked both ways down the hall, and decided for his right, toward the stairs they had used to get to the nurse's. Reaching them, he turned into the nearest classroom.

The teacher inside the classroom was an older man. He was a science teacher, Jimmy remembered, though he had never had him for an instructor. The man was currently watching two policemen search his classroom.

"Excuse me," Jimmy said. "Could I ask you something?"

"Certainly, young man," the teacher replied. "My name is Mr. Kutaro. How may I help you?"

"Mr. Kutaro, my name is Jimmy Kudo, and I'm trying to help the police with Miss Matthews' murder. I'd like to ask you a couple of questions." Kutaro nodded. "First off, who uses that teacher's lounge across the hall?"

"All of the fourth floor teachers. Sometimes the principal."

"Was the principal in there this morning?"

He looked up toward the ceiling, as if trying to remember. "Why yes, she was."

"Was Miss Matthews in there this morning?"

"Yes."

"Could you take me through a typical morning in that teacher's lounge?"

"Hmm. I come in first, and begin to brew the coffee. I am very good at coffee making. Then I sit down on the couch, and work on the morning's crossword puzzle in the paper... Mr. Yamaguchi, the other science teacher, comes in next. He helps me with the crossword... Mrs. Haverly, the English teacher, is after that. She usually brings a Sudoku with her... About that time, the coffee is done. The three of us get our coffee as Miss Matthews comes in. Typically, she has some quizzes or something she needs to grade. Oh! I'm sorry, if the principal joins us in the lounge, she gets there after Mrs. Haverly, but before Miss Matthews... Mr. Scannell and Ms. Waters come in together after that. And then the whole floor is there. We drink our coffees, and do our puzzles until the bell rings."

"Thank you." Jimmy said. His hand came up to cup his chin in the token "thinking" pose.

"Are there any more questions?"

"Just one. How do you take your coffee?"

* * *

Jimmy arrived in the teacher's lounge, and took in a large breath. '_This is the scene of the poisoning. It has to be. There's no other place it could have been. Mr. Kutaro didn't mention anyone having to go to the bathroom, and I think he would notice. I talked to all the teachers on the floor, and they all corroborated with Mr. Kutaro's story. Cyanide poisoning is very quick, so she couldn't have been poisoned before she got to this room._'

"You lost, kid?"

It was the female officer from before. The new one on Maguire's squad.

"You new here?" he replied.

"You always ask questions?"

"You ever answer them?"

She sighed. "Yes I'm new. Officer Maria Kelman, at your service."

"Jimmy Kudo, I've helped out Maguire's people before. I didn't recognize you, so you must have been new."

They shook hands.

"I suppose you're the one that's been searching this teacher's lounge?" Jimmy asked.

"You would be right. Don't know why, though. Unless we stumble on a bottle that is clearly labeled "cyanide", we won't be able to sense anything. It's colorless and odorless, practically undetectable. And I don't think our killer is _that_ stupid. They may not be a mastermind, but they are a teacher."

"So you've ruled out the janitors, too?"

"Please! Murder over school supplies? I'm not buying it." she said, sitting down on one of the couches casually.

"Unfortunately, that's the only motive there is." Jimmy said. "Well, that was given to us, anyway." he moved over toward a cabinet opposite the couch, and opened it.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

"I have a couple different ideas working around in my head." he replied. There wasn't much inside the cabinet. A tin of instant coffee, sugar, some paper filters, pesticides. He picked up one of the pesticides and looked at it for a moment.

"I've checked them all out. None of the pesticides are poisonous."

Jimmy was about to put the can back when he spotted something. "Wait." he said. He lifted out a white can, and held it up to the police officer. "Have you seen this before?"

"Yeah, sure. They sell them at every market in town."

"But this _type_. Have you ever seen any red and black ones?"

"No, they're all like that. Just plain white. Why? Did you think of something?"

"I think so." Jimmy said, smiling. "Now I have the what, I just need the who, how and the why."

He put the can back onto the shelf, still smiling, and closed the door. He went to the small refrigerator near the coffee maker and opened it. Inside were the fourth floor teacher's lunches, untouched. On the door shelves there was some cream, butter, and bottles of water.

"Time to see if my second theory is correct." he mumbled. He pulled out the cream and shook it. "Some gone." he said. Then he went to the trash can by the counter, and lifted out a thrown away bottle of cream. He placed it on top of the counter carefully.

"There's still no motive, but there's only one person who had the opportunity." Jimmy said.

"Congratulations, detective." Officer Kelman said. "You've cracked it. Now would you mind telling me who did it?"

* * *

"Maguire. The kid solved it." Officer Kelman said, as she and Jimmy entered the room.

"Really, Jimmy?" Serena asked.

"Really." Jimmy replied.

"Well, I would love to hear this." the Inspector said. He sat down in Miss Matthews' chair, leaning back, and waited for Jimmy to begin.

"Miss Matthews comes into school every day at a little past six, and walks into the fourth floor teacher's lounge. All of the teachers I questioned agree with this statement. She sets down her bag beside the couch opposite from where Mr. Kutaro and Mr. Yamaguchi are working on the daily crossword, next to the chair where Mrs. Haverly is doing a Sudoku puzzle, immediately next to the principal who occasionally joins the group in the mornings. She gets coffee from the pot on the counter, cream from the refrigerator, sugar from the bowl, and sits down on the couch to grade some papers. Mr. Scannell and Ms. Waters arrive. Some minutes after the bell rings at 7:45, she is dead. The events of a seemingly normal morning turn into something exceedingly abnormal."

"Great. What does that have to do with anything?" Maguire asked.

"That is the scene of the crime, Inspector. The place where Miss Matthews was poisoned."

"But you just said that's a normal morning. How could she have been poisoned? That would qualify as abnormal."

"Let the kid continue, Inspector." Kelman said. Maguire sighed, and nodded.

"Thank you. From that point on, everything that could have gone wrong, did. The nurse was away, 911 was too far out, and there were a bunch of kids subjected to watching their beloved teacher die. First, there is the obvious question: why would someone want to murder Miss Matthews? To be honest, I still don't know the answer to that question. So, we move on to "how?". The lab results came back, and it is found that cyanide poisoning is the cause of death. Cyanide? Where do you hide Cyanide in a school? A chemistry lab would have too many children in it. But, the nurse's office, there are a lot of substances in there, and no one would be allowed to snoop. And if the nurse happened to be away for the day, there would be no reason for the police to search there. For safety, disguise the substance as something that could be in any room. Better yet, choose a substance that could be in any room."

"When Serena and Rachel went to the nurse's office earlier, I met them there and we searched it. As Serena pointed out, the only substance with the word "poison" in it was "rat poison". No big deal there, normal rat poison isn't toxic to humans. This is normal rat poison." Jimmy pulled out the white can from the teacher's lounge.

"But Jimmy, the rat poison I saw was red and black." Serena pointed out.

"Exactly. What you found was an old type of rat poison. So old, it was back from when rat poison was made with potassium cyanide."

The class gasped simultaneously, and broke out into fervent whispers.

"So, in searching for the "how", we come across the "what". Moving on, potassium cyanide is colorless and odorless. It can be mixed in any substance and no one would be able to tell the difference. Miss Matthews didn't eat anything at school in the morning, so it would have to be the coffee. Now, how would someone slip rat poison into a person's coffee without them noticing? You could put it into the coffee, directly, but that would kill everyone, not just your one target. So that narrows it down to condiments. Rat poison wouldn't mix well with sugar, which leaves the cream. Of the seven people that had coffee that morning, four drink it black, and three have cream. Now, how do you get only your target to drink the poisoned cream? That's easy. It just so happens that Miss Matthews is the first one in the morning to drink their coffee with cream. If you put the rat poison in a container with only a little bit of cream left, Miss Matthews would have used up all the poisoned cream, and then the two other cream drinkers would have had to open another carton."

"Genius." Maguire said.

"So there's the "How". Now, how about the "who". The only motive we had to go on was angry janitors at stolen school supplies: which, by the way, were taken by Ross Dillan from the janitor's closet and placed in the cabinet until he could come back and get them. Then Miss Matthews almost caught him in the act of removing them, so he left the stash and hid inside the tall closet."

"Dangit, Kudo! How do you DO that?!" the young perpetrator said.

"Nevermind that. That motive was nixxed. So, we look for opportunity. It had to be someone who could get into the locked nurse's office, aka the janitors, and then get into the teacher's lounge, aka the teachers. These two events seemingly wouldn't coincide. But there is one person who has the keys, and was welcomed into the teacher's lounge every so often."

"Principal Smith. She has all the keys to the school, often takes coffee in the fourth floor teacher's lounge, and on top of that, there is mud on the insole of her left shoe that should match a sample in the nurse's office by the back right desk leg."

The woman in question was looking downward, staring at the floor.

"I should have known after the bake sale case you were going to be trouble for me." she said. "But I couldn't stop it. It had to be done."

"Principal Smith! Why would you want to hurt Miss Matthews?!" Jen Cooley shouted.

"Because _I_ was supposed to be Mrs. Matthews!" she crumpled to the floor, tears falling from her eyes.

"Ms. Matthews had a husband? But she's a "Ms.", not a "Mrs."!" Melissa said.

"Some women prefer to remain "Ms.". The title "Mrs." derives from the word "Mister's" indicating a husband's possession over his wife. Some women today are morally conscious of that, find it degrading toward women's rights, and keep the title "Ms." to show that they don't belong to anybody." Jimmy explained. "Ms. Matthews is one such woman."

"Yes, she's married. She married my fiancée!" Mrs. Smith said, her tears running streams down her cheeks. "I was so in love with him. We were going to be married two weeks after we broke up. I found out that he was cheating on me with someone, I never found out whom. I moved, found a handsome man, and married him. But I could never really love him. My heart belonged to Kevin. I became the principal of this school, and thought my life was a good one. That is, until I hired her. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence, Matthews isn't that rare of a name. But no, it was him. She had to give me three forms of identification for the job, and one of those was a marriage certificate. I couldn't believe it. I had hired an _adulteress_! Not only that, but the woman who stole my love's heart away from me! She RUINED my LIFE. And I couldn't just let her live with that."

"I'll take that as a confession." Maguire said. "Kelman, cuff her."

"Sir!" Kelman said. She came up behind the principal, clapped her in handcuffs, and started to read her Miranda rights as they left the classroom. "You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in..."

"Thanks again, Jimmy." Inspector Maguire said.

"No problem Inspector. You just call if you have a tough one." Jimmy said. The Inspector left, along with all the other police officers, who hooted congratulations to Jimmy as they passed.

"Jimmy! That was soooo cool!" Melissa said. "I'd love to hear how you solved it! Walk me home?" she asked.

Jimmy cast a glance at Rachel over his shoulder. She was looking away from him.

'_Aha. So Rachel's mood has something to do with Melissa._' he thought. "Sorry, I'll have to take a rain check."

"Sure! Walking in the rain together is sooooo romantic!" Melissa said. "Buh-Bye!" she waved, and exited the classroom.

Jimmy sauntered over to Rachel. He cleared his throat. "So," he said. "You still mad at me?"

"No." she sighed. "No, I'm not. In fact, I'm kind of proud of you." she said.

"Walk you home?" he offered.

"Sure. As long as you don't mention Sherlock Holmes." she said.

"Not a word." Jimmy replied.

* * *

END CASE 4

* * *

_So, Rachel was back to talking to me, the police force was even more impressed with me, and that was about the only two things good about this murder. The school had to find a new principal, and a new math teacher. Everyone in the class went to Miss Matthews' funeral, where we all met her husband and decided that he was a pompous jerk who didn't deserve as great a person as Miss Matthews._

_I walked Rachel home that day. And every day after that. She even waited for me to get out of soccer practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays just for the pleasure of me walking her home. No, I suppose that's just my ego talking. Come to think of it, I never did give Melissa that rain check..._

* * *

Well, there we go! What did you think? Good? Bad?

TELL ME!

I'm still open to suggestions. As you can see, this chapter is dedicated to Son of the Specter 992, for his/her awesome suggestion at a case. I hope you liked it. It's not exactly what you asked, but I still hope you approve! And anyone can give me a suggestion! So if you have anything in mind for a case, don't hesitate to press the little button that says "GO".

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